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France Prešeren (December 3, 1800 - February 8, 1849) was a Slovenian poet.
His name is sometimes Germanized as "Franz Prescheren", especially in older documents from the time Slovenia was ruled by the Austrians.
Prešeren was born in the village of Vrba, Slovenia.
In the past and still today Prešeren was and is considered the first and leading poet of Slovenian poetry, acclaimed not only nationally or regionally, but also according to the standards of the developed European literature. Prešeren was one of the best European Romantics.
His most famous work, Sonetni Venec (A Garland of Sonnets) was directly inspired by his unhappy love for Julija Primic (Germanized "Julia Primitz") and the death of his close friend, the poet Matija Čop (Matthias Tschop). Understandably, many of the verses in this work are full of bittersweet passions. Sonetni Venec was written in an interesting format: the last line of one sonnet becomes the first line of the next, making all fourteen sonnets in the collection an intertwining "garland" of emotional lyricism; one sonnet cannot exist without the other. The first lines of the fourteen sonnets form another sonnet, and the first letters of these lines form the words "Primicovi Julji", "to Julija Primic". Prešeren's poem Zdravljica (A Toast) is the Slovenian national anthem since 1991.
He died on February 8, 1849 in Kranj, Slovenia. The 8th of February, Prešeren's day, is now a national Slovenian Cultural Holiday. Prešeren appears on the Slovenian 1000 tolar banknote.
See also
External link
- Preseren.net (http://www.preseren.net/ang/default.asp) - biographical data, texts of most his poems in Slovenian, English and German language.de:France Prešeren